A network camera video reproduction device serves to obtain a video distributed from a camera or the like through network communications and reproduces the obtained video. The network camera video reproduction device (hereinafter, simply referred to as “video reproduction device”) obtains video data from a camera connected to a network through network communications and reproduces a video based on the obtained video data by user's manipulation. Such a device has been disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005-295106, 2005-311670 and H11-041587.
The network camera video reproduction device is typically used in a CCTV (Closed Circuit Tele-Vision) monitoring system such as a road monitoring system for monitoring roads, a river monitoring system for monitoring a specific area of a river, or the like.
The video reproduction device obtains a video from a camera connected to the network at an operation request from a user. At this time, a plurality of (e.g., N (N being a natural number that is equal to or greater than 2)) video reproduction devices may obtain video data from the same camera. In case that the camera that performs the distribution though the network has a video distribution capacity M, when the N video reproduction devices respectively obtain video data, the distribution rate of the video data per device becomes M/N. Here, M is the capacity that one camera connected to a network can distribute a video having a predetermined size to the network per unit time. For example, if the video distribution capacity of a camera is 60, this indicates that the camera has the distribution capacity of 60 fps (frames per second), that is, the camera can distribute a 60-frame video to the network per second at the maximum. Accordingly, in case when two video reproduction devices are connected to the same camera, when the video reproduction devices equally obtain video data, each of the video reproduction devices can obtain the video at the distribution rate of 30 fps.
In the case of one or a few video reproduction devices for example, in case a distribution rate is equal to or larger than that expected by a user who uses the video reproduction device, there may be no problem. However, in the case of a plurality of video reproduction devices, the distribution may be performed at a lower distribution rate than that expected by the user.